Scott Thorpe’s constant companions this summer will be two varieties of anglers: the two-legged ones carrying fly rods and the four-legged with lethally large claws.

“The grizzly bears,” said the Minneapolis resident who is an Alaskan fishing guide, “are around you every day.”

Thorpe, 57, plans to leave June 1 for his third summer in the Alaskan bush, showing clients from around the world some of the best salmon and trout fishing on the planet.

Grizzlies aside, it’s a fascinating way to make a living. Most of us wouldn’t ever attempt it, at least not in the manner Thorpe did.

At age 55, he gave up a lucrative architect’s career and bolted for the backcountry.

Actually, it didn’t happen that spontaneously. Thorpe, who grew up St. Paul’s East Side, knew for a long time he was fed up with his career. And he made a plan to change it.

“I am a good architect,” said Thorpe, who spent 18 years with the firm Ellerbe Becket and another five years with the firm HGA. “I had many successful, high-profile projects.

“But I had a midlife crisis. I made a promise to myself that I would quit as an architect at my 55th birthday,” he said. “I hated being an architect. There are certain people who have a passion for it. They can work 24-7, nights and weekends, and they love it. To me, it was totally unbalanced. If your passion lies somewhere else, you’re always competing against that.”

Thorpe’s real passion was fly fishing. Look him up in Minnesota Department of Natural Resources records, and you would see he holds the state record for rainbow trout, a 16-pound, 6-ounce steelhead he caught in the Devil Track River in 1980. Last week, he was again fishing steelhead, somewhere on the North Shore, possibly in Canada.

His plan to unhitch himself from a well-paying career started in 2003. He went to fish-guide school in Montana, using his vacation time to get his guide’s license and start his guiding business.

Meanwhile, he told his boss at HGA that they should plan his going-away party just before his 55th birthday.

“I said, ‘I’ll be 55 in three years and leaving,’ and they said, ‘Yeah, no way.’

“When I gave my six-month notice, that felt good,” Thorpe said. “When I was a lame duck those last few months, we won a huge project. They said, ‘Now, you’re not going to leave, are you?’ ”

Thorpe headed for the exit and never looked back.

He quickly realized guiding in Montana wasn’t the right gig. “It’s an apprenticeship where you have to work for an outfitter. It’s sort of like a pyramid scheme. Your outfitter gets most of the money, and you get $100 to $200 a day.”

“I picked this lodge because they use helicopters to access the rivers, which means I fly back to the lodge every night,” Thorpe said. “It’s what I’d call relative comfort for a guide.”

This is his third season at Talaheim, and he doesn’t plan to return to the Twin Cities until Sept. 20. He said if you don’t like grizzly bears, it’s definitely not a job for you.

Because the lodge’s anglers travel to remote rivers with helicopters, most of the bears Thorpe encounters have never seen people.

And because the rivers are bulging with king, red and silver salmon, along with rainbow trout and dolly varden, bears and anglers are wandering the shorelines for the same reason: to catch fish.

Instead of carrying a fishing rod, Thorpe carries a Remington 870 pump shotgun every day with a seven-round magazine. The first shell has buckshot, the rest are slugs.

“One day, we bumped into 11 different bears in four to five different sightings,” he said. “I’ve never had to fire at a bear, but I’ve had to throw rocks at them. The lodge owner, Mark Miller, says there is no such thing as a warning shot with a grizzly. If his ears are down and he’s running at you, you aim to kill the bear. When I see a bear, I put a shell in the chamber.

“I sleep in a tent platform that has an electric bear fence around it. I guess there are a lot of ways to get hurt in this job: bear encounter, helicopter accident or jet boat accident.”

During one hair-raising incident, a pair of grizzly cubs spotted Thorpe and his clients and began walking toward them. Only a small stream separated them and the young bears, and one cub was crying and headed directly for the anglers. The mother bear wasn’t in sight, but Thorpe knew she had to be nearby.

“Luckily, the helicopter arrived and took the clients back to the lodge,” he said. Because the chopper was fully loaded, Thorpe stayed behind.

“By then, the bears had moved on,” he said.

Thorpe doesn’t actually fish a lot. “My job is to find fish. I get the client to cast properly, to see the fish and to play the fish. I don’t get the pleasure of catching the fish, but all the stuff that goes with it. As a guide, you raise your game when you get a novice to catch a fish on a fly rod.”

He spent 41 straight days guiding last summer, took one day off and spent another 31 straight days on the water. By summer’s end, he had lost 15 pounds.

The days are long. After fishing, he returns to the lodge and hangs out with his clients, teaching them to tie flies. “You have to be enthusiastic, conversational and awake,” he said. “I never drink because you never know when you’ll need to help a client with something. I go to bed at 10:30, and I’m up again at 6.”

He doesn’t regret his career change.

“It’s still fishing every day. You’re sharing experiences, the bald eagles, the salmon and the lore,” he said. “I’ll guide in Alaska until my body gives out.”

Another 10 or 20 years?

“Maybe.”

THE SCOTT THORPE FILE

Age: 57

Home: Minneapolis, but he grew up in St. Paul

Summer job: He begins his third season June 1 guiding anglers at Talaheim Lodge in Alaska. Clients come from the United States, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, most of the world

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